There are many sports activities where an athlete achieves greatness by being able to repeatedly deliver a seemingly magical chain reaction of powerful, flawless and graceful body movements. One might imagine a pitcher winding his shoulders moments before a game winning pitch. One can visualize the elegant but powerful rotation of a golfer's body as she drives a ball down the green. A tennis player might twist into a backhand and deliver it explosively over the net with precision. In each of these scenarios, the athlete must train for many years repeatedly executing the same swing, pitch or throw in order to create muscle memory, flexibility, power and instant recall of game winning stances, positions and plays.
However, many times improper foot position, body swaying or other movement decreases the power or precision of the athlete. Because many of these unwanted nuances happen so quickly it is often hard for the athlete to be aware of and eliminate performance limiting defects when practicing. Largely this is because there is little or no tactile feedback from which the athlete can gain valuable insight when performing a sports activity. Most often athletes rely an outside observer such as coach to watch and advise—but a mere observer cannot offer better insight than the athletes internal self-awareness of her body during practice.
In the applicant's experience there is a deficiency in the existing and prior art wherein there are no sufficiently lightweight, portable, adjustable and collapsible devices that can be used to consistently provide instant and direct tactile feedback to the individual athlete during training which helps her become more aware of body position and attenuate unwanted lateral, forward and rotational movement.
As an example, a successful golf backswing entails a correct order of orchestrated movement between the player's hands, arms, shoulders and hips. The golfer takes position, waggles, returns to address and then swings to the top of the backswing—all the while maintaining relative variable amounts of turn of his shoulders and hips throughout the sequential stages of the backswing. During the first part of the swing, the hands arms and shoulders start the club backwards along a plane which inclines upward from the ball through the shoulders. The shoulders turn and begin to wind and twist the hips thereby creating a correct tension in muscles between the shoulders and hips. The hips, a pivotal element, turn and initiate the downswing and release the body, legs and arms in a cohesive movement. Each part contributes to the increasing speed and power of the swing. And so the power and precision follows from the shoulders to the hands and through the club and ball.
Unfortunately, it is common for golfers to create unwanted lateral movement or sway during the backswing of a golf club. This lateral movement decreases the golfer's ability to generate necessary resistance in the legs, hips and chest. Without that resistance, the force and leverage necessary to create a powerful weight shift, torso turn and downswing is lost.
In the current art there are some devices used to assist in the training of golf. Most commonly, teaching professionals employ aiming sticks which are typically simple fiberglass rods. These rods are often stuck in or laid down on the ground to provide the training athlete a visual cue like a lane in the green or a window through which to aim. This innovation does not provide and tactile feedback or assist in the cessation of unwanted body movements.
There is also a golf training aid akin to a shoe for golfers recognized by the trade name “PivotPro.” This device is a sandal like shoe with straps that is attached to the foot and attempts to adjust posture by employing an angled, wedge-like sole. According to the collateral materials of the manufacture, this device is “designed to be used on the practice range at home or office.” This device remains physically attached to the user and any benefits thereof do not remain once the shoe is removed, is limited to golf, cannot be used on the green, and does not provide tactile feedback beyond the foot of the wearer.
Therefore there is a need for a training apparatus that helps an athlete attenuate and extinguish all unwanted lateral, forward and lateral movement. In the instance of the above golfer, such an invention would provide tactile feedback in various places along the athlete's body thereby signaling that the body position is not optimal. This direct tactile feedback would help the golfer to change body position and maintain proper golf face angle through the activity, the golf ball and finish position. The golfer would maintain position through the backswing and feel resistance build in the lower leg. Such an invention would also provide feedback to signal that the hips may be over rotated past forty five degrees or the shoulders past ninety degrees off the target line. This is at least one example of how such an apparatus would address the problems in the prior and current art.
In the applicant's experience, there is a need for a collapsing portable apparatus for the training and adjustment of forward, lateral and rotational movement in sports activity which is i) portable, ii) adjustable, iii) collapsible when not in use, iv) not attached to the user's body, v) stops unwanted forward, lateral and rotational movement, vi) provides tactile feedback for learning while training, vii) immediately provides the user with positive feedback, viii) initiates resistance necessary to hit a ball correctly, and ix) can be used indoors, in practice areas, or in the field. The device of the present invention is believed to accomplish all of the foregoing objectives.